COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County Administrator Leonardo Brown said he'll search for a new director for the county's jail but the process won't be rushed along. And he also said the county had no reason to believe there were issues with hiring the jail director who was dismissed.
Brown spoke to News19's J.R. Berry Thursday, one day after it became public that the county had fired their jail director, Tyrell Cato. A spokesperson for the county said the termination had taken place on September 9.
Cato had been hired by the county to head the jail in early July after previously leading the Kershaw County Detention Center. However, documents from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy show Cato was terminated from Kershaw County on May 24, just weeks before he was took over in Richland County.
Richland County said it fired Cato after an internal review. While Brown has not said what specifically led the agency to release Cato, he told News19 that the county had no idea there any potential problems with hiring the former director.
Brown said back in April, Cato and the Kershaw County jail agreed to provide support to help with the day to day operations of the Richland County jail. Brown said it was a move done because of staffing shortages in Richland County.
"We were working closely with Kershaw County in a relationship providing support for Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center," Brown said. "During that time,[Cato] was actually a part of those conversations, actually signed those agreements, and so Richland County really had no reason to believe that he wasn't in good standing with Kershaw County."
"So this idea of whether or not appropriate steps were taken, whether there were background checks done, we had gotten good feedback from Kershaw County in working with them, and other members of the community that this was a good director," Brown added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed to News19 Thursday that on July 30, agents were asked by Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan on behalf of County Administrator Danny Templar to investigate allegations of misconduct by Cato.
For now, an assistant director is running the day-to-day operations at the Richland jail while Brown begins the search for a new director.
"I'm not going to rush," Brown told Berry. "But I am going to continue to look to provide support for those men and women at the detention center to let them know we have their best interests at heart whether their detention officers or detainees at Alvin S. Glenn."
The firing of Cato comes as the Richland County jail continues to face scrutiny over allegations of mistreatment of inmates. In February, before Cato was hired, 27-year-old Lason Butler died while in custody. In August, attorneys for his family filed a federal lawsuit claiming unsanitary conditions and staff negligence led to Butler's death.
A federal lawsuit brought by Disability Rights South Carolina in April alleges unsafe and unsanitary cells where detainees with disabilities are held for up to 24 hours a day. Detainees with disabilities are also left naked in cells without monitoring while on suicide watch, according to that complaint.
Staffing issues at the jail have been well documented. According to a Richland County Council meeting agenda last summer, there were about 141 detention officer vacancies as of June 4, 2021, a number the council noted was “higher than normal.”
To draw more job applicants, the council unanimously voted in July 2021 to recommend increasing detention officers’ starting salary. Brown said starting pay is now at $40,000.
"We also pay for certifications, pay for experience, and so that has the ability to actually increase the salary for those detention officers so the result of that is we've actually had a pretty significant change in personnel that's actually been hired since we've done that," Brown said. "So are we where we need to ultimately be? No, we're not. But we have seen an increase in staffing and we're excited about that."
Richland County also has an agreement with Allied Security to provide additional staffing support at the jail.